To this opinion of _Pythagoras_ did _Plato_ also assent, when hee considered that there was the like eclipse made by the earth, and this, that it had no light of its owne, that it was so full of spots. And therefore wee may often reade in him and his followers,[1] of an _ætherea terra_, and _lunares populi_, an æthereall earth, and inhabiters in the Moone; but afterwards this was mixed with many ridiculous fancies: for some of them considering the mysteries implied in the number 3. concluded that there must necessarily bee a Trinity of worlds, whereof the first is this of ours, the second in the Moone whose element of water is represented by the spheare of _Mercury_, the aire by _Uenus_, and the fire by the Sunne. And that the whole Universe might the better end in earth as it began, they have contrived it, that _Mars_ shall be a spheare of the fire, _Iupiter_ of aire, _Saturne_ of water; and above all these, the Elysian fields, spacious and pleasant places appointed for the habitation of those unspotted soules, that either never were imprisoned in, or else now have freed themselves from any commerce with the body. _Scaliger_[2] speaking of this _Platonicke_ fancie, _quæ in tres trientes mundum quasi assem divisit_, thinks ’tis confutation enough, to say, ’tis _Plato’s_. However for the first part of this assertion, it was assented unto by many others, and by reason of the grossnesse and inequality of this planet, ’twas frequently called _quasi terra cœlestis_, as being esteemed the sediment and more imperfect part of those purer bodies, you may see this proved by _Plutarch_,[3] in that delightfull work which he properly made for the confirmition of this particular. With him agreed _Alcinous_[4] and _Plotinus_, later Writers. Unto these I might also adde the imperfect testimony of _Mahomet_, whose authority of grant can adde but little credit to this opinion, because hee was an ignorant imposter, but yet consider that originall, from whence hee derived most of his knowledge, and then, perhaps, his witnesse may carry with it some probablity. He is commonly thought by birth to be an Ismaelite, being instructed by the Jewes in the secrets of their Philosophy,[5] and perhaps, learned this from those Rabbies, for in his _Alcaron_, hee talkes much of mountaines, pleasant fields, and cleare rivers in the heavens, but because he was for the maine very unlearned, he was not able to deliver any thing so distinctly as he was informed.[6] The Cardinall _Cusanus_ and _Iornandus Bunus_, held a particular world in every Starre, and therefore one of them defining our earth, he saies, it is _stella quædam nobilis, quæ lunam & calorem & influentiam habet aliam, & diversam ab omnibus aliis stellis_; a “noble starre having a distinct light, heat and influence from all the rest.” Unto this _Nichol. Hill_, a country man of ours was inclined, when he said _Astrea terræ natura probabilis est_: “That ’tis probable the earth hath a starry nature.”[7]